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MICHAEL J. MULLEN / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Glenburn Twp. resident Camille Holmes has shifted professional fields throughout the years, but has maintained a desire to help others in each job she has held.

Camille Holmes approaches life with an eagerness to help everyone she meets.

It’s a principle that has carried over among various jobs when the Glenburn Twp. resident switched tracks a few times in her career.

A city native, Mrs. Holmes graduated from West Scranton High School, attended Keystone College and earned a bachelor’s degree in business merchandising from Marywood University. Working in retail didn’t satisfy her love for business, including working on books and projections, so Mrs. Holmes went to City Hall, where she floated between departments as an administrative assistant before starting her family.

For a time, she also was employed by The Scranton Times as a district manager of carriers before moving on to education.

Business teacher

Mrs. Holmes put her years in various fields to use as a business instructor at the former Northeast Institute of Education. She also was involved with student services, helping to coordinate internships and promoting job development and placement.

She continued in this vein at Arbor Inc., a system of educational and training schools, as program director. There, she trained women in the clerical field and when the company teamed up with the state Department of Public Welfare, she helped women work their way off welfare. She headed up four such centers across Northeast Pennsylvania.

“It was extremely rewarding,” Mrs. Holmes said. “It was such a pump.”

During this time, she served on the boards for Big Brothers Big Sisters and 4-H. She also was a past president of the Interagency Council, which gathered area organizations together for information sessions on different aspects of the social-service-sector to talk about what they have to offer.

When Arbor moved her job to Philadelphia, she chose to stay in the area with her family, and embarked on a new career path.

For years, Mrs. Holmes worked on the side as the after-hours emergency service representative for the Voluntary Action Center, which meant she was the go-to person for emergency situations involving the homeless, people in detox and many others in need. She got to know lots of local senior citizens in this role and decided to become licensed to help them with insurance and Medicare.

“I enjoyed working with them; they were a hoot,” Mrs. Holmes said.

She missed the business side of things, however, and eventually she answered an ad to join Swift Kennedy & Associates, where she has been employed for nine years. From an office in Wilkes-Barre, Mrs. Holmes works as an insurance broker, consulting businesses on employee benefits and plans.

“I’m helping, just in a different way,” she explained. “I’m the one who knows, so I get to advise them on how to get the most bang for their buck. The companies make me feel like I’m one of their employees, which is such a compliment.”

Mrs. Holmes belongs to BNI, for which professionals meet weekly to help each other grow their businesses, and serves on its leadership team.

Time for fun

An avid golfer, she is a past president and vice president of Elmhurst Country Club’s Women’s Association, and she chaired numerous tournaments and charitable events.

In business and at leisure, Mrs. Holmes is just happy to be in NEPA, she said. She regularly attends reunions with classmates from the former St. Frances Cabrini school in West Scranton and has “cousins lunches” with her extended family regularly, which keeps her well connected in the area.

“I love the fact that my family is here,” she said. “What’s nice about it is, where else can you go and everyone knows everyone? I love that.

“I can still see people I went to grade school with. When you move, you give that up. It also helps in my job. You always have a mutual friend, and I get to help them.”

Contact the writer: pwild ing@timesshamrock.com,

@pwildingTT on Twitter

TO NOMINATE A NORTHEAST WOMAN, please submit requests via email to lifstyles@timesshamrock.com or mail them to Northeast Woman Nominations, The Sunday Times, 149 Penn Ave., Scranton, PA 18503. Please include the woman’s name, address and the reason the reader feels the woman is deserving. Those submitting need to include their name and a daytime phone number.

Meet Camille Holmes

At home: Lives in Glenburn Twp. with her husband, Colin. She has two children, Christopher and Jackie Curran; three stepchildren, Leah, Leslie and Trevor Holmes; and two sisters, Bernie, Clarks Summit, and Fran, San Diego.

At work: She is a benefits specialist for Swift Kennedy & Associates in its Wilkes-Barre office.

Inspiration: Her husband, as a parent and in his career. “Everything he does, he gives 110 percent.”

Aspiration: To continue to grow professionally, spiritually and emotionally.

Diversions: Golf, supporting the Pittsburgh Pirates and traveling to visit her children.

Aversions: Mean-spirited and untruthful people

Quote: “Life isn’t always fair.”

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